Maria Hill: expert at 'keeping a lid on things'
by shadow-lupine
Summary: Agent Maria Hill, a day in the life.


_Maria Hill: expert at 'keeping a lid on things'._

You might think that Maria Hill had an easy job. You, then, are an idiot.

Waking up, the first thing she does is answer her emails from her bed in either the helicarrier, on the ground base, or if it's Christmas, her bed in her New York apartment.

_Maria,_

_Fury has lost his communicator. I think that it was on purpose. Could you please tell him that the 'satellite' is some sort of hammer? We're going to have to do more research on it._

_Thanks,_

_Phil._

_**Hill.**_

_**Something has happened to my communicator, could you please arrange for Stark to make a more efficient one?**_

_**Director Nick Fury.**_

_Agent… MiniFury._

_Can you please ask Fury what the hell he was thinking, leaving this woman with me? Her and Pepper are being mean!_

_Tell him I can turn off his communicator anytime I want._

_Any time._

_I_

_Want._

_Lots of Love. Or something. Or not. Whatever._

_Tony Stark._

_AKA Iron Man._

Let's just say that this is a _small_ sample of the emails she wakes up to on a daily basis.

After this… lovely start to the morning, Maria slides out of bed and hits the shower. Being Fury's main assistant has its perks, and an inbuilt shower is one of them. Her alarm goes off just as she finishes getting ready, like it should, and she strides confidently out of her room.

The agents on patrol nod at her as she walks past, and she returns the favour, smiling at the ones she knows. Her daily dose of optimism comes from the hope that she can get in a decent breakfast before she's called to manage another disaster. She gets her bagel and coffee and looks for a place to sit. Barton is there, dressed in his uniform, sitting silently in a corner. Hill goes to sit next to him, knowing he won't disrupt her. They have a good working relationship, her and the Hawk, mostly because both are dead inside before coffee and the fact that they could kill with a single move. She's pushed for a few of his more… 'creative' arrow acquisition forms when he's promised to bring her back chocolate from Belgium or hand soap from Paris. Phil lets her do it as long as she promises to share.

Maria's half way through her bagel before an agent's on her com, Fury's 'requesting' her presence on the main deck. She takes another swig of her coffee from its polystyrene cup before depositing it along with her beloved breakfast in the bin. They'll be time to throw a proper funeral later.

She surveys the amassed agents in front of their computer screens. Is that guy playing _video games? _ She goes to walk over to him, but is sidetracked by Agent Lee debriefing her on the latest data on the Tesseract on the ground base.

She's not technically meant to know about the cube, but Fury is, and not many people are brave enough to try and debrief the scary Director.

And speak of the devil, her boss comes striding onto the main deck, black coat swishing ominously behind him.

"Hill." He says by way of greeting. She presents him with a new comm in return. He nods. "What's new?"

"Tesseract is a no-go so far Sir. Our scientists cannot seem to stabilise the energy. Phil has reached New Mexico, turns out the satellite is a huge hammer and Tony Stark is requesting that you remove Agent Romanoff. Again."

"Is that all?" Maria Hill could write a book on "the emotions of Nick Fury and how to read them" and the subtle raising of an eyebrow speaks volumes. There's a small shred of satisfaction in figuring out that he had to abandon his breakfast too.

'Well sir. I do believe that Tony Stark and Agent Barton do finally have something in common."

Fury's mouth twitched. People seem to think that he's robotic in his emotions, and in fact there's a betting pool going to that extent, but Hill knows that the opposite is true. Fury took one glance at how Barton looked at his partner and signed her on. It was Fury who gave Coulson a week off with the cellist last Christmas, and she highly suspects it was Fury who was the reason her cheating ex-boyfriend 'mysteriously' ended up in hospital. Not that he'd admit to any of this.

She followed Fury around for a while, listened to him beat down several snooty agents, pump up several new ones and generally boss everyone around. Then it was her turn.

There wasn't much to her job in the in-between disaster times like these, she just made sure she looked impressive and kept an eye on the agents. They were usually pretty good. Sometimes she walked around and asked questions, making sure the info she had heard was still correct. Over half of her job was as a walking encyclopaedia.

A blue suited agent burst in suddenly, asking for Fury. He must be new, because it took a firm order for him to tell her what was going on. Apparently some guy had burst into the New Mexico site and was causing havoc.

Well, that was the sparknotes version she gave Fury when he came striding in as the guy had scampered away. Seriously, sometimes she thought that he just waited outside until he was sure that she was the one that could give him the info. She knew he liked how she never bull-shitted him around.

As it was, Fury just nodded. "Good thing we sent Barton down there. He'll sort it out."

"Yes. Sir." Dammit, now who would she sit next to at lunch?

Not that it apparently mattered, because just as she was leaving, something big caught her attention and she was dragged off to a debriefing with only a vague hope that coffee and biscuits would be served.

Repeat several more hours later with her dinner. Agent Romanoff dialled in. Apparently Iron Man, Grey Iron Man who was apparently Lt. Co. James Rhodes, and some other dude were having a scrap down in NYC.

She pressed a button on her comm "Fury, get in here".

Predictably, he was right outside the door when she called so came striding back in. She quickly recounted the situation.

"Keep an eye on it. Stark can handle himself."

"But sir, the citizens-"

'The citizens will not be helped if we go in there and blow everything up, will they?"

"No sir."

"Good. Now keep an eye on things."

'Yes sir."

Fury was, apparently, out.

Far too many stressful hours later, Fury ordered her to knock off for the day. New York was safe, Tony Stark was no longer a threat, Hammer showed everyone what a tool he was (not that she didn't already know that one) and that other crazy hammer obsessed guy was in Coulson's custody. Judging from his preliminary report, she would probably wake up with an account that was hilarious in her inbox in the morning. Agent Maria Hill flopped, exhausted, into bed with a smile.

She couldn't wait.


End file.
